Page 147 - White Lives The Interplay of 'Race', Class, and Gender in Everyday Life

140 How English am I?
voices were those who believed in the need to protect ‘British sovereignty’
against the threat of Europe. The ‘New Labour’ government had the devolu-
tion of both Scotland and Wales in its manifesto. As it came into power, the
government was keen to promote the idea that ‘New’ Labour was associated
with a new view of Britain, as modern and chic. There was an attempt to
‘rebrand’ Britain as ‘Cool Britannia’. The Union Jack was reclaimed from
the Far Right as pop stars sported it on their clothes or guitars. ‘Brit pop’
was born and with it the idea that Britain could be ‘hip’. Yet there was also a
re-signifying of the St George Cross with the Euro ’96 Football Cup based in
Britain. This was marked by a resurgence of fans sporting the flag of England
– the St George’s Cross (rather than simply wearing the Union Jack and
ignoring its Scottish and Welsh elements). John Gabriel discusses the media
representation of this football championship and ‘its significant role in the
confirmation and reworking of English national identities’ (Gabriel 1998).
Gabriel points out how the championship was staged as a battle and took
place while the Conservative government was struggling with the European
Union over the banning of beef: ‘The scene was set for the media to frame
both the football championships and the beef war as twin European battle-
fronts’ (Gabriel 1998: 26). The death of Diana and the popular response
to this in ways that were deemed ‘unBritish’ or ‘unEnglish’ also prompted
discussions of whether Englishness or Britishness was changing. There were
challenges to notions of the restraint and reserve of the English as crowds
flocked to places of mourning with flowers and candles. Their response was
compared with popular Argentinian expressions of grief at the death of Eva
Peron. Were the English/British becoming ‘Latin’? These debates were ac-
companied by press coverage that strove to emphasise the multiracial nature
of the public mourning, in particular with many close-ups and interviews
with Asian and black members of the crowd. Presented as the quintessential
English princess at the time of her wedding, Diana was being repackaged as a
representative of multiculturalism in Britain as she died. London, as national
capital, was often the site for these events. Yet at the same time, London
occupies a distinct position in that it is also constructed as a cosmopolitan
4
space which can, at times, stand outside the national space. These events
were not necessarily mentioned in the interviews, but they nonetheless pro-
vide one backdrop to the discussions.
In the midst of theses different contestations about the meaning of na-
tional identity, the contrast between Deborah’s and Dawn’s responses to the
question of national identity point to the different significance of claiming a
national identity depending on a subject’s position. What for a middle-class
white woman is a minor irritation may for a working-class black woman be
a highly charged political issue. National identity is one modality through
which ‘race’, class and gender work. To be positioned or to position oneself
as English has different implications according to how one is raced, classed
or gendered. Englishness can act, like whiteness, as an unacknowledged
norm or position of privilege that structures identity and experience. What is